Week 6: Demon Hand Joe
Week 6: Demon Hand Joe Year 735, First Moon, Day 4 When we left off... The party, minus Quintus, fled to a nearby cellar to take refuge from the guards. As it turns out, Vallaki has a pretty decent response time, because every guard and militia-man in the city was hunting for the notorious criminals within their walls. After spotting an unlocked storm-door, you encounterfed a group of mysterious strangers in robes who were waiting on... someone... to be their 5th member of a ritual. Everyone had a reason to not be that person, but Selgaard had the least reason... so Burning Hands. Slowly, as the robes fell away and Ulfar dragged another body in from the alley, you began to piece together some facts: these were dirt-poor peasants, working out of a book about Devil Worship that was not particularly well written. Or even in a real language, for some chants. The best you could learn was that this group had something to do with Lady Wachter's book club, and that Lady Wachter has a very unfortunate name. Then the City Watch entered the hovel above your cellar and started a routine search, to the suppressed panic of a cultist's spouse, who was cooking dinner. Routine searches are the enemy of fun and short rests. Though painstaking steps had been taken to erase the tracks that led right to the secret door, Selgaard had left his cultist robe on the bed, which put the guards into high alert. They found the secret door and attempted to get inside, but it was held fast from the other side. The homeowner knew that his wife was hiding down here and his general urgings that she "come out" and "explain" did not inspire the guards to leave. As a clever ruse, Clyde made the other side of the door look like a wardrobe interior using an illusion spell, and Nars let them push it open... but the temporal nature of minor illusion spells caused a flicker in the illusion magic, and the jig was up. This time, your group surrendered peacefully, while making an appeal that you had tended to the guards left in the Coffin Maker's Shop before running... guards who were the friends of the ones you now dealt with. The Burgomaster and his henchman showed up, demanded to know the meaning of this... and when disrespected, left to prepare his "justice". This guard captain was willing to try and coordinate your escape from the Burgomaster's "justice", but he asked for a serious stretch of faith: all your stuff had to be left behind, or it would just end up in the Burgomaster's private coffers. After de-gearing, Ulfar, Selgaard, Clyde, and Nars ended up in the stockades. Allegedly, to wait for rescue at the eleventh hour.... Meanwhile, Sir Quintus had carried out his own mission, attempting to find Gertruda, save Daran Edermath, and to protect Ireena, Freek, '''and '''Myrtle. His quest took him to Blinksey's Toys, where he and the proprietor spoke for some time. As Quintus returned to the Inn, he happened to see his adventuring party in the stockades. Furious, confused, and suspicious, Quintus demanded answers... and was flatly rebuffed by Ulfar. The conversation turned sour quickly, and Quintus left you to suffer your just punishment. Back at the Blue Waters Inn, Quintus made the disturbing discovery that Ireena was missing! He set up arrangements for Freek and Myrtle, and headed back to the Town Square to share this information with the rest of the party. Despite previously terse exchanges, the loss of Ireena somewhat changed the circumstances. Quintus' evidence pointed to Izek Strazni, whom the rest of the party knew by his large, fiendish hand. Ulfar offered to spring everyone from the stocks early, to deal with Izek, but Nars urged caution. You all decided to trust the guard to help you. He eventually turned up, unlocked your restraints (while smoking one of Ulfar's Cigars, and told you to "wait for the light." In the dark of night, just before the start of the Festival of the Blazing Sun, a large carnival wagon rolled by and flung a door open. You dove in, landing safely inside, only to realize that "inside" also contained a large, armored sabretooth tiger. Who the fuck just drives around with a goddamn tiger? Rictavio '''the half-elven bard, it turns out! Rictavio grilled you over some questionable items in your packs (which he had definitely searched) through a small hole in the top of the wagonbefore he handed your gear back, but he didn't seem too put off by any of your answers. The tiger was thankfully well trained, and some of you managed 6 hours of decent rest on the road out of town. Nars, however, suffered a terrible nightmare and awoke even more exhausted and drained than he was when he went to bed. This was really confusing to Nars, who blames a magic rock for his troubles, but -- confused or no -- he needs sleep more than answers at the moment. The circus elf took you all to his tower a safe distance from Vallaki, and was very clear that he didn't want any further association with you, because bad things happen to those he works with. His is not an easy life, and his work is far from done. He did mention that his apprentice might come by looking for him, though, and -- after a bit of a debate between Ulfar and Quintus -- he departed with the bones of St. Andral for the Vallaki cathedral. With Ireena in Izek's clutches, 4/5 of the party wanted by the guard, and Strahd still unaccounted for, the '''Festival of the Blazing Sun '''will simply have to carry on without PC intervention... '''Around Town... The Innkeepers' children have two new friends! The four of them are often heard playing games in the stables.